Council Panel Oks Plan Limiting Ad Benches

December 04, 1990|By Robert Davis.

A tough new ordinance that would restrict advertising benches in Chicago to only one for each bus stop was approved by a City Council committee Monday over the loud protests of advertising companies and some aldermen.

The ordinance, part of a continuing campaign by Mayor Richard Daley to remove advertising and unsightly objects, such as newsstands and advertising kiosks, from public sidewalks, is aimed at removing most of an estimated 30,000 illegal advertising benches that have popped up at street corners throughout the city over recent years.

Under terms of the ordinance, which will be presented to the full City Council on Wednesday, some areas of the city, such as North Michigan Avenue and State Street, would completely prohibit benches, and the remainder of the city would be divided into zones. Advertising bench companies then would be asked to bid on three-year contracts for exclusive rights to install benches in those zones, but only under strict regulations.

Anthony Pontrelli, president of the Wright Advertising Corp., which has about 2,500 advertising benches throughout the city, said he had not been shown a copy of the latest revision of the proposed ordinance until shortly before the start of Monday`s Committee on Streets and Alleys meeting and asked for a delay.

``Under this ordinance as it is written, we`ll be out of business in 30 days,`` Pontrelli said.

In a last-minute amendment, the ordinance was changed to make it effective 90 days after passage, instead of the 30-day provision originally proposed.

Even though the ordinance was recommended for passage by a unanimous voice vote, the three-hour hearing was sparked with several heated exchanges. Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) said senior citizens in his Far North Side ward want and need the benches at bus stops, but the provisions that would prohibit benches on sidewalks less than six feet in width would make his ward ``bench- free.``

Pontrelli said that although he was in favor of regulations that would improve the aesthetic values of advertising benches, he opposed strict regulations and number restrictions, saying he would prefer to work with individual aldermen to forge compromises if problems arose.

Ald. William Krystyniak (23rd) said such a compromise was worked out between his office and sign companies in his Southwest Side ward, where as many as 36 advertising benches had accumulated at the intersection of Archer Avenue and Pulaski Road.

But Ald. Roman Pucinski (41st) said he has received little cooperation from advertising companies in his Northwest Side ward, where he has personally counted 14 benches at Bryn Mawr and Harlem Avenues and 15 benches at Higgins Road and Cumberland Avenue.

In other restrictions in the proposed ordinance, advertising benches would be prohibited on all corners that do not serve as bus stops, within bus shelters, in any historic district or public park or within 50 feet of any area that is zoned for residential use.

And, advertising companies that are awarded exclusive contracts for licensed benches in the designated city zones would be obligated to remove all illegal benches now in those areas.

Pontrelli disputed the Daley administration claims that there are currently about 30,000 illegal benches in the city, saying the number is about a third of that.

Although the ordinance is expected to sharply reduce the number of advertising benches in the city, it was not hailed by George Sikokis, a spokesman for the Streeterville Organization, who urged the aldermen to completely ban the benches from all areas of the city.

Under the proposal, if the city removes an illegal bench, the owner will be charged the cost of the removal and, in addition, if a company places a bench in an area without a permit, it can be fined $100 for each offense.